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Publications Cambodia & India

Water, Ritual, and Prosperity at the Classical Capital of Bagan, Myanmar (11th to 14th Centuries CE)

by Pyiet Phyo Kyaw & Gyles Iannone

Water management in Ancient Bagan, with interesting parallels with archaelogical findings at Kbal Spean, Phnom Kulen.

 
Publication
Archaeological Exploration of the Tuyin- Thetso “Water Mountain” and the Nat Yekan Sacred Water Tank, SPAFA Journal, SEAMO-SPAFA, DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.26721/spafajournal.v3i0.600
Published
November 14th, 2018
Authors
Pyiet Phyo Kyaw & Gyles Iannone
Pages
35
Languages
English, Burmese
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Water management in ancient civilizations included symbolical rituals of purification. The authors focus on the Nat Yekan sacred water tank in the Bagan area, and trace interesting parallels with similar Shivaist water reservoirs known in Kbal Spean, Kulen Hills area northeast of Angkor.

They assert that said reservoir ​“may have been intended to symbolically purify this water, enhancing its fertility prior to its flowing downslope, into the city’s peri-urban zone. Indeed, we believe that Nat Yekan’s iconographic elements served a similar purpose as the imagery found in association with the intricately carved river beds along the Stung Kbal Spean River (…) Here, water was made to flow over and around a series of Shaivite symbols (see Boulbet 1979; Chevance 2005; Feneley et al. 2016; Hendrickson 2011; Jacques and Dumont 1999; Tan 2014), many of which – such as carved linga – are clearly tied to notions of fertility. These symbolically charged water management nodes, and the extensive water storage and redistribution system of which they were part, celebrated the Angkor king’s role as guarantor of prosperity for the Khmer kingdom (Tawa 2001:141). Similar Hindu iconography is also associated with the river bed at the Sahasralinga pilgrimage site on the Shalmala River, in the Indian state of Karnataka.”

Full list of authors: Gyles Iannone, Pyiet Phyo Kyaw, Scott Macrae (Adjunct Professor, Trent University, Peterborough, Canada), Nyein Chan Soe (Assistant Lecturer, Yadanabon University, Mandalay, Myanmar), Saw Tun Lin (Assistant Lecturer, University of Yangon, Myanmar), Kong F. Cheong (Graduate Student, American University, Washington DC, USA).

Photo: Vishnu resting on Ananta, Kbal Spean reservoir (by Gyles Iannone)

Tags: Bagan, Myanmar, Kulen Mountain, Kbal Spean, water management, Indian influences

About the Authors

Pyetphyokyaw

Pyiet Phyo Kyaw

Pyiet Phyo Kyaw is a Professor of Archaelogy at University of Mandalay, Mandaly, Myanmar. He has conducted numerous researches on the Bagan site and the Bronze Age in Burma. 

Gyles Iannone

Gyles Iannone

Gyles Iannone is an anthropologist and a Fellow Researcher with Trent University Archaelogical Research Centre (Canada).

He specializes in Early State Formations and Urbanism (especially in the tropics), Settlement Archaeology, Resilience Theory, The Archaeology of Climate Change, Natural Disasters, Human Impact on Ancient Environments, and Collapse, Mesoamerica (especially Maya), South and Southeast Asia (especially Myanmar). He is currently involved in the ​‘Integrated History of Residential Patterning, Agricultural Practices, and Water Management at Bagan (IRAW@Bagan) Sub-Project’. 

Glossary Terms

  • Carnatic, Karnataka

    sk तैलङ्ग Tailaṅga "the Tailanga country" | sk तैलङ्गः tailaṅgaḥ "inhabitants of Tailanga" | persian سلطنت كرناتک saltanat-i-kratanak "the Sultanate of Karnatak' | tml ஆற்காடு நவாப் āṟkāḍu navāp "the Nawab of Arkot" 

    1. Name of a geographical area, the modern Telangana or Karnatak. The part of the Indian peninsula south of Orissa (Odisha) to Madras (Chennai), between the Eastern Ghats and the Bay of Bengal, in the former Madras Presidency and in the modern Indian states of Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and southern coastal Andhra Pradesh.
    2. The area where took place the Carnatic Wars between the Mughal Empire, Britain and France which ultimately led to British victory and the domination of the British Empire over India.
    3. Carnatic music (known as Karnāṭaka saṃgīta or Karnāṭaka saṅgītam in the Dravidian languages): the main style of classical music in southern India, as distinct from the Hindustani and Odissi musical genres of the north. Most Carnatic compositions are in Telugu and Sanskrit, derived from ancient Hindu texts and traditions, particularly the Samaveda, and written with an emphasis on gāyaki (singing) style. The Vijayanagara Empire (Karnataka) saw the golden age of Carnatic music in the 18th and 19th centuries, under the patronage of the kings and queens of Mysore, Travancore, and the Maratha rulers of Tanjore. Along with famous royal court musicians Veene Sheshanna (1852–1926) and Veene Subbanna (1861–1939), composers Tyagaraja (1767– 1847), Muthuswami Dikshitar (1776–1835) and Syama Sastri (1762–1827) remain celebrated for the richness of their kritis (works).

  • Liṅga, Linga

    sk लिङ्ग linga, 'penis', 'grammatical gender', 'mark', 'sign', 'a type of ancient temple' | kh លិង្គ lengk 'gender', 'feature', 'attribute', 'male genitalia' 

    The liṅga is a semi-iconic (between the iconic and the aniconic) image of Śiva. A cylindrical shaft with phallic connotations, it is often associated to the yoni, symbolic representation of the female genitalia, the matrix of anything [1]. 

    The linga symbol is ever-present in Southeast Asian architecture and religious representations. It has absorbed ancient local cults of uncut stones. Associated with fertility rituals in Cambodia, it became the physical embodiment of the kamraten jagat raja or devaraja, the vector of the divine essence attached to kingship.    

    [1] In Tibetan Vajrayana (tantric Buddhism), 'liṅga' refers to the “upper genitals” [penis or clitoris].

  • Sahasraliṅga, Sahasralinga

    sk सहस्रलिङ्ग from साहस्र sāhasra ['thousand', 'by thousands', 'large number'] + लिङ्ग linga ['linga'] | kh (literal) លិង្គ១០០០ lengk poan "thousand phalluses"

    Sahasraliṅga (सहस्रलिङ्ग) is a multiple man-made linga formation of anamorphic or anthropomorphic statues (at times on top of a yoni), or of images carved in natural rock wall and bed, usually for the purification and consecration of water. 

    Sahasralingas are associated with Saivism but can include representations of Brahma and Vishnu.

    The Kbal Spean ក្បាលស្ពាន Thousand-Linga លិង្គ១០០០ site on the Siem Reap River, Cambodia, is a typical example of 'passive consecration' of running water. 

    At Prambanan temple (Java, Indonesia), collected rainfall goes underground through bulbous forms (lingas) as a "holy water machine", to use the phrase coined by Jeffrey Sundberg in 2022, around cellas hosting giant (3 meters high) monolithic images of Shiva, Brahma and Vishnu, all mounted on 1-meter high yonis. 

    In the Purana, Sahasralinga is the name of an ancient lake constructed by king Siddharāja Jaysiṃha from Anahillapur Patan (Gujarat). Sahasralinga or Sahastralinga is also a pilgrimage place on the Shalmala River near the town of Sirsi, Uttara Kannada (Karnataka state), India. 

View all glossary terms →